Australian companies can now register their names ending in the new .au direct domain!
Australia just got a brand new international domain name (IDN) – .au direct. Thats not .com.au, or .org.au or even .net.au… its just .au. – like thorncreative.au!!
This means Australia has joined ranks with major countries like China, France, Germany and Japan, who all have IDNs that end in .cn, .fr, .de, .jp etc.
Since so many businesses are moving online every day (especially these days!), this is exciting as it opens up the opportunity to secure another short, memorable domain name!
Why you need to register your .au domain name
- AUSTRALIAN. Give customers the confidence to purchase knowing they're buying from a verified Australian business.
- SHORT. Shorter urls are easier to remember, and are less likely to be typed incorrectly by your customers.
- BRAND PROTECTION. If you already own your .com.au domain, protect your brand by owning that name with all extensions - then no matter what domain extension your customer types, they'll still land in the right place.
How to register your domain now, while you have priority (before anyone can get it!)
If you already own a domain name in the .au namespace (eg thorncreative.com.au) you have a 6 month window to register your exact match .au direct domain (eg, thorncreative.au). During the registration process, you’ll need to generate a priority ID/token with your current domain’s registered contact email address. Learn more about this at: auda.org.au/audirect
- Login to your account at thorncreative.com.au/clients
- Click on Domains > My Domains. Click on any existing .au domain name you have (eg .com.au) and open ‘Contact Details’
- Verify your contact information is correct here first and make sure you’ve got access to the email address associated with this domain (this is where your tokens will go!)
- Once you’ve double-checked you can access the contact email for existing domains, go to Domains > Register a New Domain.
- Search for the exact .au match of your existing domain. So, we had thorncreative.com.au registered already, and verified the email account was current. Then, we searched for thorncreative.au.
- If the domain is available, you’ll get a ‘congratulations’ message. Add it to your cart and go to the checkout (or add another domain).
- You can register as many .au domains as you like. If there are no exact name matches for your address that exist already, you won’t need to do the next step.
- To register your domain name, you’ll need to complete the form as below.
- Registrant Name = Your business or organisation legal trading name
- Registrant ID = your ABN
- Eligibility Name = Your business or organisation legal trading name
- Eligibility ID = your ABN (again)
- Eligibility ID Type = ABN
- Eligibility Type: select
Priority registration fields: - Click the button ‘Retrieve your priority tokens’ which will open a website at priority.auda.org.au. Enter your domain name & requestor name (thats you!). This will then send you an email with instructions to get your tokens. Don’t worry, this only takes a minute!
- Copy/paste your Priority contact ID and Priority authInfo into the checkout form fields.
- If your site is hosted with us, leave the nameservers as they are and click continue to finish the checkout.
If you have any issues in retrieving your priority tokens, or placing your domain order, please let us know!
